Conventional integrated sintered ceramic electronic parts that contain Pd electrodes or alloy electrodes containing Pd as a primary metal, are manufactured by firing the electrodes and ceramics simultaneously in air. By firing these electrodes in air, Pd is oxidized up to a temperature below 820.degree. C. At 820.degree. C. and above, however, oxidized Pd is again deoxidized so that the Pd electrodes or the alloy electrodes are sintered as metals and integrated with ceramics.
For example, the Pd electrodes of a multilayer ceramic capacitor are formed by the following steps of:
forming a green chip by laminating ceramic sheets and electrode films alternately;
burning out all the organic constituents of the green chip; and
firing the chip in air.
In the step of burning out the organic constituents of the green chip, Pd contained in the electrodes of the chip is temporarily deoxidized. In the step of firing the chip in air, however, Pd is oxidized and its volume increases. As a result, the volume of the electrodes also increases and defects are formed inside the ceramic body after this step.
In order to solve this problem, methods of preventing the increase in volume of the electrodes due to the oxidization of Pd have been invented. For example, Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 5-275271 discloses use of particles, which are a mixture of silver and palladium, as electrode paste so that the oxidizing velocity is slowed down and the increase in the volume of the electrodes due to the oxidization of Pd is prevented. However, especially when the initial density of electrode films is high, the increase in the volume of the electrodes cannot be satisfactorily prevented by this method.